The invention relates to a system for level regulation of a driver's cab of a commercial vehicle relative to the chassis of the vehicle. The invention also relates to an operating method for level regulation of a driver's cab of a commercial vehicle relative to the chassis of the vehicle.
Spring or damping mechanisms are known from the prior art for sprung mounting of the driver's cab of a commercial vehicle on the chassis of the vehicle. The driver of the commercial vehicle can thereby be better protected against vibrations caused by the highway, e.g. by undulations or potholes. In order to achieve a good damping effect and a high level of damping comfort, even in the event of strong vibrations caused by the highway, a very long spring travel is desirable. However, a long spring travel causes a large gap between the driver's cab and the chassis as well as a correspondingly greater structural height of the commercial vehicle. This degrades the cw value (i.e. drag coefficient) and hence the fuel consumption of the commercial vehicle. Such systems are thus insufficiently suitable to enable both a high level of ride comfort and also efficient fuel consumption and to adapt the spring system or damping system to the diverse traffic and driving situations occurring in real road traffic.
With a spring or damping mechanism known from the prior art, air struts are used that are self-levelling by means of an internal or external lever system and valves and in this way adjust a fixed distance that cannot be influenced between the driver's cab and the chassis of the vehicle. With said spring mechanism, if the driver's cab moves relative to the chassis because of excitations from the ground or other influences, a valve is operated by an internal lever or a lever attached to the spring strut, so that with movements of the spring strut air is permanently discharged into the surroundings or air is pumped into the spring strut once the target position is left. The high consumption of air resulting from the continuous air input and discharge is disadvantageous with this spring mechanism.